Pete Naughton previews the week's best podcasts and internet radio,
including Daft Punk: the Collaborators and Pop Culture Happy Hour.

Daft Punk: the Collaborators French electro-pop duo Daft Punk have a new album out this month and, as part of the promotional build-up, they’ve released this short series of video podcasts, profiling a handful of the people with whom they worked on the record. I normally give these kind of promo tie-ins a wide berth, having sat through more than my fair share of industry-funded dross (‘Wreck-It Ralph: Official UK Podcast’); but this series is an exception, as it features genuinely interesting people talking not only about the album but about music in general. See especially: disco superproducer Nile Rodgers and Italian dance music pioneer Giorgio Moroder, both of whom are as eloquent as they are talented.

Pop Culture Happy Hour The good folks over at NPR – the undisputed champ of US radio production houses – put out this excellent weekly podcast featuring a roundtable discussion of all things pop culture, from the summer’s big blockbuster releases to Hugh Bonneville’s acting in Downton Abbey. It’s a lively, intelligent, enjoyably upbeat affair, driven by enthusiasm and wit rather than the kind of show-off-ish cynicism that now flavours so many culture programmes on this side of the pond.

Doug Stanhope’s Podcast Fans of Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe series on BBC Two will already know Doug Stanhope as a hard-drinking, hard-talking American standup who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. In this new podcast series he interviews some of his more interesting friends, usually over drinks. It won’t be to everyone’s taste - expect coarse language, loose morals and edgy jokes - but there’s a certain Hunter S Thompson-style charm to it.

INTERNET RADIO CHOICE Reach OnAir This station gives aspiring broadcasters the chance to put their own content out to a global audience for free. Would-be DJs simply need to record their show, book a time-slot and upload it to the site. Much of the content is shaky, but it’s heartening to hear people giving the medium a shot.